Hart Leisure Centre is another example of our work to deliver a flagship facility for a local authority to improve the wellness of the local community.

On this occasion, our team of construction specialists replaced the existing Hart Leisure Centre with a new facility featuring an eight-lane 25-metre swimming pool, climbing wall and eight-court sports hall. It replaced an old facility with modern, top of the range site.

Investment in wellbeing

Hart District Council invested £24 million in the centre, which is managed by Everyone Active. It is adjacent to a country park, which is reflected in its design that blends into the surroundings to feel like part of the local habitat with 4,800 trees and 50,000 shrubs also planted around the site.

Chairman of the council, Councillor Tim Southern:

"The project is one of the biggest investments the council has made and reflects our commitment to health and wellbeing in the district. The facilities are the most modern available and my thanks to all project partners, especially Everyone Active and Willmott Dixon, for delivering this centre on time and on budget."

Large development

The centre also gives people access to a 120 station gym, climbing wall, coffee shop, multiple sports pitches and sports hall. The distinctive exterior roof is clad with weathered copper standing seam roof sheets. Inside, the pool hall has a tied arch roof featuring aluminium perforated acoustic deck and suspended African Ayous timber with the latter specified by the client.

Carl Westby, Hart District Council

“I felt as though I was part of the team and that probably brings out the best in me and gives Willmott Dixon an advantage, in the sense that they can take advantage of my knowledge, but at the same time they can build something that is going to be maybe a little bit better than what they would have built otherwise”

Sustainable

Hart Leisure Centre is a sustainably conscious building which has paved the way to exceed industry standards. The council wanted a quality centre that will be sustainable for years to come and the following is what we did to achieve this.

CHP Installed

A combined heating and power system was installed to re-use the waste heat from the pool hall to produce energy with any excess being exported back to the grid

PV Panels

We also installed 625 PV panels supplying 165.62 kWp which is enough energy to power the building plus extra which can be sold back to the grid.

Natural water filtration

The swimming pools were installed with a sand filtration system which used a UV water treatment process that will only need to be changed every ten years. This also reduces the amount of chlorine needed as the filtration system efficiently cleans the pool water.

Toward zero waste

During the building works, 98% of construction waste was diverted from landfill with an emphasis on reuse, recycling, take back schemes and a focus on reducing packaging.

David Love at Everyone Active:

“I’m really proud of the new centre; a facility for the whole community to be proud of and enjoy for years to come."

To the north there is a large plaza with entrances to the country park and to the south there is car parking for 320 cars, a full size all weather pitch, a 5 a side pitch and 2 intermediate grass pitches.

The facility has an energy efficient sloping roof and sustainable timber detailing. Sustainability was, and other features are PV solar thermal panels, natural ventilation to the sports hall, landscape planting to encourage bio-diversity, PIR lighting and a Combined Heating and Power (CHP) system to re-use the waste heat from the pool hall.

Local pound

As with all projects, our team ensured the local economy benefited from construction, with 85% of suppliers being SME businesses, 75% of the construction contract value delivered by SMEs and 75% of local labour sourced within 40 miles. The project also provided 88 work experience placements for 15-17 years olds from the local.

“Through our work Hart District Council has been able to respond to the increasing demand from their constituents for a diverse range of new community facilities, whilst working within a budget. Our partnership with Willmott Dixon has a track record of delivering outstanding projects which not only answer the immediate needs of our clients, but also have the broader focus of helping local authorities to build sustainable communities.”

Roger Forsdyke, managing director for Willmott Dixon in the southern home counties:

“We have our local office in nearby Cobham and given our team’s large presence in Surrey, we are proud to have delivered a superb new leisure centre in Fleet that is one of the best of its kind in the UK.”